Wakeup Call

Days of sleuthing in Britain, following the food fight after the Manchester United-Arsenal soccer game, has brought new information to the surface.

Various newspapers reported that an Arsenal player tossed some soup -- pea or tomato? -- at United coach Sir Alex Ferguson after Sunday's game in Manchester. Now comes another tabloid theory. The Sun said that Arsenal defender Ashley Cole threw pizza at Ferguson in the tunnel fracas.

Whatever happened, it led to this front-page headline in the Sun: "Old Fling Cole."

HIGH-STAKES GAME

There's a fascinating connection between presidential elections and a certain football team in Washington.

When the Redskins win their final home game before the presidential election, the party in power wins. A Redskin loss means the incumbents are out.

"It's kind of amazing," Redskin Coach Joe Gibbs told Associated Press. "You wouldn't think something like that would line up that many times."

RED SOX WORLD

A Red Sox fan club in Uzbekistan?

You bet.

Wire reports had an item about the five-member Tashkent Red Sox Fan Club. There's no doubt about the dedication of these folks. They had to wake up at 5 a.m. to catch a Boston-St. Louis game.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Graphic overload is driving sports fans to distraction, and Phil Mushnick of The New York Post noted the continued silliness on the part of Fox:

"Did you see it yesterday? Did you see what happened? For a few minutes in the second half of the Lions-Giants game, Fox lost the use of graphics. All we could see was the field, and the game being played on it. Wasn't it glorious!

"It has come to this, sports fans: Saturday, after David Ortiz's homer in the first inning of Game 1 of the World Series, Fox saw fit to post the following: "First career World Series home run.'

"Well, it's about time! Especially given that it was his first at-bat in a World Series."

JERRY MEANDERING

NBC's Jay Leno, on the NHL's lockout: "If you want to see white guys with missing teeth, you're going to have to watch Jerry Springer."

WORTH HIS SALT

Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk spoke to Rolling Stone magazine about his first car, a 1977 Honda Civic hatchback: "I got it around 1984, with what was pretty much all of my savings. I remember living in that thing during the summer -- it was always full of sand and wet towels."

TRIVIA TIME

When the Boston Red Sox won the World Series in 1918, what team did they beat?

Answer: The Chicago Cubs, who haven't won a World Series since 1908.

Wakeup Call is a collection of observations from sports figures and writers worldwide.